March 2020 - The Trackside Photographer

Posted on March 26, 2020April 2, 2020 by admin

Indy Interlude

Indianapolis, Indiana, was once a crossroads with numerous railroads calling. The Monon, Big Four, Pennsylvania, Illinois Central and Baltimore & Ohio all called there. Much of the traffic funneled through Indianapolis Union Station, a downtown structure that served all five roads and still stands today.

On the east side of the station, this large brick tower was built to control the many tracks through the station and the interlocking plants at either end. The tower remains today and while it is no longer manned, it continues to house signal equipment.

Posted on March 19, 2020March 26, 2020 by admin

Levee Street

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Drive on Levee Street in Vicksburg south of the waterfront and the casino, and you soon reach the Kansas City Southern railroad yard. This is a historic railroad yard and has been in continuous use since before the Civil War. There is still a turntable, and there was once a brick roundhouse, but it was demolished sometime in the 1970s, I was told. One remnant of the 1800s remains; a forlorn and sad but once handsome brick building. According to the Vicksburg Post (20 January 2008), it was once a warehouse and work shop for steam engine supplies, but it now sits neglected and deteriorating.

Posted on March 12, 2020March 19, 2020 by admin

East Broad Top—
Smiles Everywhere

The last time I saw the East Broad Top under steam was October 29th, 2011, during a freak pre-winter blizzard fondly referred to as Snowtober. Two months later, the tourist excursion season ended, and the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company suspended operations indefinitely. The railroad has been dormant since, their doors locked.

Fast forward to last Friday, February 14th, 2020. On this day the EBT announced that the Kovalchick family had agreed to sell the railroad in its entirety to the non-profit EBT Foundation, Inc., a newly formed group of prominent railroad industry figures, philanthropists, and longtime EBT enthusiasts. I was there representing the Friends of the EBT in the role of event photographer, recording the day’s events with both candid and posed images.

Posted on March 5, 2020March 12, 2020 by admin

A Conversation
of Railroad Photographers

Photographer and writer Oren Helbok was a presenter at Conversations 2019, the Center for Railroad Photography and Art’s annual conference. Oren relates his railroading adventures with his father in this video recorded at the conference.

When Edd Fuller asked me to write about the Center for Railroad Photography & Art conferences (at one of which he and I first met), it took me a couple of days to figure out where to start. After attending five of the events, I still can barely wrap my mind around the superabundance of talent and experience that gathers at every one. I still have not quite come down from the thrill of meeting David Plowden, my all-time railroad-photographer hero, the first time I went to Lake Forest, in 2016.